Thursday, July 31, 2008

Penguins from frigid waters near the bottom of the world are washing up closer to the equator than ever before. About 300 penguins have been found dead or alive in recent days along the coast of Bahia state, better known for sunbathers in bikinis than for seabirds native to Antarctica and Patagonia.

Biologists believe stronger-than-usual ocean currents have pulled the birds north. Others have suggested the increase might be due to overfishing near Patagonia and Antarctica that has forced the penguins to swim further in search of food.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

In this photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a couple of adult chinstrap penguins nuzzle as their chick sits in the rocks at the Central Park Zoo in New York, Monday, July 21, 2008. The zoo is currently home to three new penguin chicks which have hatched is in the past 20 days. Aside from the chinstrap chick shown in the photo, there are two new gentoo penguin chicks.Photo credit: Suzanne Bolduc / AP Photo/WCS

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Believed to have taken a wrong turn, this penguin was too exhausted to stand when he was found on the beach near the ferry dock about noon.

Helen Burrell, of Leopold Wildlife Shelter, said the penguin had most likely swam across the ocean from New Zealand and followed the Queenscliff ferry into shore.

"The only penguin breed on our shores are little blue or fairy penguins," she said.

"He's definitely not a fairy penguin, he's about five times bigger and has yellow Bob Hawke-style eyebrows. He must've gotten himself lost and just followed the ferry to shore."

Ms Burrell said the royal penguin stood about 60cm tall and weighed 25kg. She said the penguin was not injured but had severe dehydration when he was found. He was taken to Melbourne Zoo overnight to be officially identified and rehabilitated before he is released back into the ocean.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray.

The so-called Magellanic penguins began appearing in late June. Many of them dead or barely alive, they arrived on beaches all over southeastern Brazil about 2,500 miles from their native southern Patagonia.

Although the penguins regularly migrate up to southern Brazil in search of food, the sheer quantity of penguins washing up farther away than normal has prompted worries that human activity may be throwing off the animals' migratory cycle.

It appears the penguins are not finding fish where they normally do, and one reason could be that warming waters and climate change have impacted the fish population.

Some said a recent oil spill off the coast of Uruguay might have wiped out fish populations there, forcing the penguins to search farther north for food. Others suggested that melting ice in Antarctica had strengthened the northbound Malvinas ocean current this year, trapping younger, more vulnerable penguins.

The penguins that recover in Niteroi will be flown to Barcellos' museum, where they'll be released into the ocean. And from there, biologists hope, the penguins will find their way back into the migratory cycle that so many of them strayed from this year.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Monday, July 21, 2008

San Francisco-based advertising agency BuderEngel (BE) has created a new campaign to showcase the renovation of, Splash Zone: Ocean Homes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the nations top attractions, it's all based around the tagline "Some Experiences Follow You Home".

Time reports more than 400 dead penguins, most of them young, have been washing up on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches.

While it's common for some birds to get swept up in fast-moving currents off Antarctica and Patagonia, a Brazilian environmental official says there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are offering several theories.

One veterinarian says overfishing is forcing the birds to swim farther out for food, where they're more likely to be sucked in by strong ocean currents in the Strait of Magellan. He says his zoo has already received about 100 penguins for treatment, and many of them were drenched in oil.

An environmental official says pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs.

But a biologist says he doesn't believe pollution levels are high enough to affect the birds so quickly and suspects weather patterns could be at fault.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Saturday, July 19, 2008

You will need...Some Oreos (1 per penguin cookie)Some Hershey's Kisses (1 per penguin cookie)A plate to put the cookies on

Instructions:Split the oreo into two cookiesMove most of the icing onto one cookieBreak the other cookie into halvesOpen a kiss and put it on the cookie with icing to make a headPut both of the half cookies on the cookie with icing to make wings

Friday, July 18, 2008

New England Aquarium penguin biologist Caitlin Hume introduces a Little Blue penguin, abandoned by its parents, into the penguin exhibit at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass., Wednesday morning, July 16, 2008. Hume, a penguin biologist at the aquarium, was involved in the hand feeding and home care of the young bird after the egg was left unattended by its parents earlier this year.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

San Francisco-based advertising agency BuderEngel (BE) has created a new campaign to showcase the renovation of, Splash Zone: Ocean Homes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the nations top attractions, it's all based around the tagline "Some Experiences Follow You Home".

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

This January—deep summer in Antarctica—explorer Jon Bowermaster suffered through a five-day stretch of torrential rains on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The same cannot be said for thousands of downy penguin chicks.

Epic rains are unusual in Antarctica, even in summer, said Bowermaster, who had been in the region on an expedition funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council.

With daytime temperatures above freezing, the rains soaked young Adélie and gentoo penguins not yet equipped with water-repellent feathers. At night, when the mercury dipped below freezing, the wet chicks froze.

"Many, many, many of them—thousands of them—were dying," Bowermaster said.

The experience, he added, painted a clear and grim picture of the impact of global climate change.

"It's not just melting ice," he said. "It's actually killing these cute little birds that are so popular in the movies."

The freezing of chicks is just one example of how human activity is endangering about two thirds of all penguin species.

Monday, July 7, 2008

The staff at Mystic Aquarium made a penguin "birthday cake" out of colorful jello molds, fish and squid to celebrate the gender identification of two male penguin chicks who were born in January. Penguin gender must be determined by a blood test that can't be administered until the chicks are 3 months old. The chicks and the rest of the adult colony shunned the cake in favor of fish.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists now say. Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists three penguin species as endangered, seven as vulnerable, which means they are "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild," and two more as "near threatened." About 15 years ago only five to seven penguin species were considered vulnerable, experts said.

And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already listed one penguin species on its endangered list, is studying whether it needs to add 10 more.